"He is Allah (God), besides Whom there is no god; the King…"
(Quran 59:23)

"So exalted be Allah (God), the True King!" (Quran 20:114)

"…the King of humanity, the God of humanity." (Quran 114:2)

"Lo! the righteous will dwell among gardens and rivers, in the
seat of honor with a Mighty King." (Quran 54:54-55)

In Arabic, the word for "owner" (mālik)
is closely related to the word "king" (malik), the only difference being
that "owner" is pronounced with an added stress on the letter a. God is
referred to by this related name "Owner" in other verses, including:

"Owner of Judgment Day." (Quran 1:4)

(Indeed, in some modes of reciting the Qur’an, the word
is pronounced with an unstressed a so the verse reads: "King of Judgment Day.")

Also: "Say: O Allah (God)! Owner of Sovereignty!"
(Quran 3:26)

God is "the owner of sovereignty". Indeed, he is the
King of Kings, since the lives and destinies of all earthly kings are in His
hands. It is as God says: "Blessed is He for whom sovereignty is in His
hand." (Quran 67:1) And thus He is the "True King" who has "sovereignty of
the heavens and the Earth".

God’s sovereignty is absolute. It has no limit. "Human
beings can be described as possessing "sovereignty", but theirs is transient
and it is limited in scope. We say that someone is king of a particular
country. We likewise say that someone is the owner of a field or a vehicle. These
types of sovereignty and ownership are limited in their timeframe – the
duration of a person’s lifetime at most, often less – as well as in the scope
of what is being possessed or being ruled.

All over the world, we can see artifacts and monuments
left behind by past civilizations: mighty castles, great estates, the ruins of
Egypt, Greece and Rome. They attest to those who once possessed great power
but then passed on into the annals of history. They held sway for a period of
time over a part of the globe. Then God decreed that their rule would come to
an end. Thus it becomes clear to us that true sovereignty belongs to God
alone, whereas human sovereignty is fleeting and capricious, restricted and
incomplete.

Ahmad Zaky has written a series of moving articles
entitled Civilizations which Have Come and Gone. How true this title is.

Who has ever possessed the entire world? People talk
about people like Pharaoh, Nimrod, and Alexander the Great, but none of them
were able to take possession of the whole world, or bring all of humanity under
their sway. All who rule do so over a limited domain for a limited time. God
has made it the norm throughout the ages that nations, kings, and powers would
contended with one another. He says: "And if not God did not check one set
of people by means of another, the Earth would indeed be full of mischief: But
God is full of bounty to all the worlds." (Quran 2:251)

No human being has ever possessed the whole of the Earth
or has been able to govern all of its affairs. Consider, then, how small a
part the Earth is of God’s vast universe.

God, indeed, is the True King in every way. He gives to
His servants when they beseech Him, and Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and
blessings of God be upon him, informs us that in Paradise, God will bestow "what
no eye has yet seen, no ear ever heard, and no mind ever imagined."[1]

Moreover, God says: "And no soul knows what delights
of the eye have been kept hidden in store from them as a reward for what they
used to do." (Quran 32:17)

The people with the least reward in Paradise will abide
for eternity in palatial splendor, dwelling in beauty and delight beyond all
imagining. "The lowliest denizen of Paradise will have what is equal to all
the world and ten times more."[2]

Prophet Muhammad said: "The denizens of Paradise look up
at the denizens of the levels above them the way they would look upon a
twinkling planet moving from East to West across the sky. This is the
disparity between them."

When the people heard this, they asked: "Messenger of
God, are those higher levels the levels of the Prophets, not to be attained by
anyone else?"

He replied: "Indeed not. I swear by Him in whose hand
is my soul, they are just people who believed in God and believed the
Messengers."[3]

These are but some of God’s bounties that He shall
bestow upon some of His worshipers. How far more glorious, then, must Firdaws
be, the highest domain of Paradise, directly below the Throne of the Beneficent.

God gives and bestows without measure, and the bounty He
gives to His servants does not decrease what He possesses in the least. The
Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, relates to us that God
says:

O My servants! If the first of you and the last of you,
human of you and jinn of you, were as the most God-fearing heart of any single
man among you, this would not increase My dominion in the least.

O My servants! If the first of you and the last of you,
human of you and jinn of you, were as the most sinful heart of any single man
among you, this would not decrease My dominion in the least.

O My servants! If the first of you and the last of you,
human of you and jinn of you, were to stand as one and ask of Me and I were to
give each person what he asked for, it would not diminish what I have, any more
than the ocean would be diminished if a needle were dipped into it.[4]

Also, God tells us in the Qur’an: "Say: O Allah
(God)! Owner of Sovereignty! You give sovereignty unto whom You will, and You
snatch sovereignty from whom You will. You exalt whom You will, and You abase
whom You will. In Your hand is the good. Lo! You are able to do all things. You
cause the night to pass into the day, and You cause the day to pass into the
night. And You bring forth the living from the dead, and You bring forth the
dead from the living. And You give sustenance to whom You choose, without
measure." (Quran 3:26-27)

Consider the choice of word "snatch" here. This is
because when a human being possesses something of value, he or she is very
reluctant to part with it. It is not parted with peacefully.

We as human beings may comb the Earth for our sustenance.
We may work with might and main to our utmost strength, producing, stretching
our creativity and our intellects to the limit. Nevertheless, we will forever
be the subjects of our Lord, the possessions of the one who created us. We
should know that this servitude to our Creator is the greatest station of
liberty there is, for the servant of God acts from free conviction and free
desire.

Our belief that God is King benefits us. It increases
our desire to turn to God and seek from His bounty. We increase our
supplications to the one whom we know is the true Owner of all things. This
belief also frees us from the thrall of what we see other people possessing. We
do not debase ourselves before those people or compromise our human dignity in
hopes of their favor. Instead, we apply our own energies and God-given talents
to aspire to be the best we can be, placing our reliance and trust in God
alone.

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